A Message from the Foundation President

August 1, 2019

Dear Friend of Bearden Middle,

Welcome back to school! Whether new or returning, I’m sure by now you’ve learned how special Bearden Middle is? We have an engaged, passionate staff and numerous, distinctive educational opportunities that help our young men and women excel.

For example:

● We are the only middle school in Knox County that is an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (“IB MYP”) World School. This year the Bearden Middle School Foundation is contributing $25,000 for IB staff development to strengthen/maintain our IB program.

● We have TSA (Technology Student Association) and Science Olympiad groups that dominate on a local, state and national level,as well as strong sciences in general? The Foundation just gave $5,000 to repair/replace microscopes for the Science Department.

● Every student at BMS is given an iPad? They were originally donated to the school five years ago, but the program responsible for them is gone. So the Foundation gave $15,000 this summer to replace iPads that needed to be replaced.

As you can see, The Bearden Middle School Foundation’s mission is to raise funds to support, benefit, promote, encourage and enhance the educational programs and facilities of BMS.

To continue fulfilling our mission, we need you to attend our third annual fundraiser on March of 2020 (exact date to be announced). We’d love for your family, your business or any business you have ties with to sponsor the event. In addition, we accept donations anytime at https://beardenmiddleschoolfoundation.org/donate/. Finally, we’d love to have you join our board if you’re interested in helping us achieve our 2019-20 goal of raising $75,000 to support academic excellence at BMS!

Sincerely,

Jonathan Wimmer, President

Bearden Middle School Foundation

Events

Purchase tickets to the Bearden Middle School Foundation Benefit online:

BMSF is exempt from federal income tax under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 501 (c) (3). Donors can deduct contributions they make to the Foundation under IRC Section 170. The Foundation is qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, transfers or gifts under Section 2055, 2106, or 2522.

School

Bearden Middle is a Knox County, Tennessee public school and the only middle school in the county that is a certified International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) World School. IB World Schools share a common philosophy—a commitment to improve the teaching and learning of a diverse and inclusive community of students by delivering challenging, high quality programmes of international education with a shared vision.

ALL students at BMS participate in the IB MYP. The MYP focuses on supporting student academic and personal growth through the following components:

8 subject areas that focus on TN State and KCS local curriculum through a challenging IB MYP framework, which encourages students to make connections between their studies and the real world.

Areas of Interaction to tie learning to both the real world and other subject areas. These include: Health and Social Education, Community and Service, Environments, Approaches to Learning, and Human Ingenuity.

Approaches to Learning help students to develop skills that have relevance across the curriculum that help them to “learn how to learn”. They help to provide our students with a solid foundation for learning independently and with others.

Personal Project is the culminating MYP experience that West High School 10th graders develop and create throughout the sophomore year. If a student continues on to West High School to complete his/her IB education, he/she will complete the Personal Project. This is a mandatory experience for all 10th graders at West, and gives each student the chance to create a truly personal and creative project of their choosing. Through this endeavor, each student will be able to demonstrate his/her ability to take initiative, think creatively, and communicate effectively—a few of the many skills our students needs to be college and career-ready.

Bearden Middle School promotes and nurtures a supportive, dynamic learning environment, by challenging every child to meet high expectations and therefore succeed in a diverse society.

BMS is proud and honored to be recognized as an AVID Schoolwide Site of Distinction. An AVID Schoolwide Site of Distinction represents the highest level of AVID implementation fidelity demonstrating excellence in instructional practice and the promotion of college readiness schoolwide.